By Erik Skye

December 15, 2010:

I got up early today, excited to do a walkabout around downtown Sydney. I had done a very brief tour last year and wanted to spend more time on all the things I missed (such as walking across the Sydney Harbour Bridge). I was not disappointed.

As I made my way from Surry Hills, I noticed a good bit of Americana (such as a store called “Route 66”, with a mural on the exterior or the building showing all the cities it covers as it crosses the US). Oh well. Maybe I can’t get away from Americana, but I double-checked with a gal in a travel agency, and the percentage of foreign visitors who are American is low (as I was beginning to realize on my own). Nothing against my mates back home – but if I wanted an American experience, I suppose I should go to California or something. (That’s one of the things about Australia that surprised me last year – They are watching America more than I ever imagined.)

So anyway, there seems to be many quaint neighborhoods tucked into the urban landscape. The terraces looked historic, too. Here are some photos of suburban-feeling Woolloomooloo, which is near the downtown area. (Yes, Woolloomooloo really is fun to say – try it a few times!)

My next mini-adventure occurred as I made my way through the Royal Botanic Gardens. It was very pretty and smelled awesome! The biggest surprise was finding hundreds of bats (“Flying Foxes”) coming to roost in the tree tops of the garden. These things are huge, and they look like pterodactyls as they fly overhead. Who knew?!

While eating breakfast downtown, I asked the young woman where she was from (I detected a non-Aussie accent). It turned out she was from Slovokia, here on a student visa. She said you can get those for a 4-year stay.

I made my way around the Sydney Opera House, around Circular Quay (pronounced Circular “Key” – Aussies don’t seem to like it when you get the pronunciations wrong!), and up and over the Sydney Harbour Bridge to Luna Park. My legs are tired now.

The Sydney Opera House (photo below) was built in between 1959 and 1973, with much controversy and big budget over-runs. Its roof-line resembles sails, but the designer (Danish architect Jorn Utzon) said he was inspired by orange peelings. Oprah just did a show in there, by the way.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge (photo below) was constructed between 1923 and 1932. It was designed by Dorman Long and Co. of England and spans 1,650’ (503 m). It’s very impressive – and I think, gothic looking.

Did you know the "First Fleet" is the name of the ships that delivered the first batch of convicts to Australia? They landed right here in Sydney in 1788. Before that, there had never been a white settlement of any kind in the history of this continent. At first perhaps embarrassed by their convict history, its my understanding that Australians are now becoming proud of that part of their heritage. Simone, a 20-something Aussie woman, whom I met the first day here, announced with pride that she was 7^th generation Australian, tracing her line from that of a convict. I would be proud of that too if I were an Australian. I’ll share more insight on this theme later.